Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Imagine playing music on instruments made from trash. This is what a group of impoverished youths in remote Cateura, Paraguay, do. The musicians' town is itself built on a landfill (the residents make their living by culling items for recycling from tons of solid waste) and the instruments they play in their Recycled Orchestra ("Los Reciclados") have been assembled from refuse, everything from tin oil cans to tools to tenderize beef or make gnocci.

The story of this extraordinary, inspirational, transformative orchestra — a story of invention, hope, resilience, endurance, empowerment, and community — is the subject of Landfill Harmonic, a forthcoming documentary directed by Graham Townsley and produced by Alejandra Nash and Rodolfo Madero.